MEGADETH has set “13” as the title of its new album, tentatively due in November via Roadrunner Records. The CD was recently recorded at MEGADETH mainman Dave Mustaine‘s Vic’s Garage studio in San Marcos, California with producer Johnny K (full name: John Karkazis), who has previously worked with DISTURBED, SEVENDUST, MACHINE HEAD and STAIND, among others.
Speaking to DJ Tom Russell of Rock Radio backstage at the U.K. edition of the Sonisphere festival at Knebworth earlier today (Friday, July 8), Mustaine stated about the new MEGADETH CD title, “I started playing guitar at 13 and this is our 13th record and I was born on the 13th. As soon as I said I was going to call it ’13’, I started noticing 13 everywhere. They never used to have 13th floors in hotels but now they have them again.”
One of the songs that will appear on “13”, “Public Enemy No. 1”, was premiered during MEGADETH‘s headlining performance on July 4 at Docks in Hamburg, Germany. Fan-filmed video footage of the performance can be seen below.
MEGADETH has once again tapped artist John Lorenzi to create the artwork for the group’s forthcoming CD.
Lorenzi was responsible for the artwork on the last two MEGADETH studio albums, 2007’s “United Abominations” and 2009’s “Endgame”, as well as the band’s 2007 box set, “Warchest”.
Mustaine was asked in a recent interview with Pure Grain Audio how the new MEGADETH album is sonically different to its predecessor, 2009’s “Endgame”. “[It’s] different, a hundred percent different, unlike anything we’ve ever done before because the guitar sounds are different; it sounds really super-modern,” he said, before adding, “If I was going to say it sounds like a particular band, I would say it sounds like really old classic [BLACK] SABBATH and with a little bit of a modern edge of QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE kind of thing. But then again, with the twists and turns of music that MEGADETH has been famous for over the years, you never know how it’ll turn out.”
When asked about what fans can expect from MEGADETH‘s next album, bassist David Ellefson told Martin Carlsson of Expressen TV, “Let’s put it this way: It’s funny that 20 years ago, we came off ‘Rust In Peace’ and we went in and made ‘Countdown To Extinction’. So, to me, that’s kind of what this album feels like. We did ‘Sudden Death’ [for a title in the ‘Guitar Hero’ franchise, ‘Guitar Hero: Warriors Of Rock’] and then this new song, ‘Never Dead’, which is a very violent riff. That was the first song we did, and we finished it top to bottom because we had to get it into this video game called ‘NeverDead’. So that’s a pretty good indication of what the new record is gonna be. But it’s a little wider than… That’s why I liken it to probably a little more to ‘Countdown To Extinction’, ’cause there’s a couple of songs that aren’t just full-on, in-your-face thrashing. However, most of it is. So you guys are gonna be excited. You’ll like it. You’ll dig it. You’ll have fun [listening to it].”
MEGADETH‘s platinum-certified 1986 masterpiece, “Peace Sells… But Who’s Buying?”, has been digitally remastered for the first time and expanded for a special 25th-anniversary release in multiple configurations. It will be released July 12 by Capitol/EMI. All of the versions, including a 2CD lift-top box, digital album and a deluxe 5Disc+3LP box set, contain a previously unreleased 1987 concert from the band’s first world tour and new liner notes written by Mustaine and METALLICA‘s Lars Ulrich.
Interview:
“Public Enemy No. 1” performance footage:
